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Rice husk ash as an alternate source for

active silica production

Article in Materials Letters December 2002

DOI: 10.1016/S0167-577X(02)00879-0

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 December 2002

Materials Letters 57 (2002) 818 821

www.elsevier.com/locate/matlet

Rice husk ash as an alternate source for active silica production

V.P. Della a,*, I. Kuhn a,b, D. Hotza a,c
a
Graduation Program in Materials Science and Engineering (PGMAT), Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC),
P.O. Box 476, 88040-900 Florianopolis, SC, Brazil
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering (EMC), Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), P.O. Box 476,
88040-900 Florianopolis, SC, Brazil
c
Department of Chemical Engineering (EQA), Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), P.O. Box 476,
88040-900 Florianopolis, SC, Brazil
Received 18 September 2001; received in revised form 23 April 2002; accepted 23 April 2002

Abstract

The objective of the present work is to develop a procedure for obtaining and characterization active silica with a high
specific surface area from rice husk ash. The relative amount of silica was increased after burning out the carbonaceous material
at different times and temperatures. A 95% silica powder could be produced after heat-treating at 700 jC for 6 h. The specific
surface area of particles was increased after wet milling from 54 to 81 m2/g.
D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Rice husk; Rice husk ash; Active silica; Specific surface area

1. Introduction HCl, HNO3, H2SO4, NaOH and NH4OH, boiled

The beneficiation of rice generates as by-product
rice husk that corresponds to about 23% of its initial
weight. This husk can be used as a fertilizer in
agriculture [1] or as an additive for cement and
concrete fabrication [2,3]. Due to its high silicon
content, rice husk has become a source for preparation
of elementary silicon [4,5] and a number of silicon
compounds [6], especially silica [7,8], silicon carbide
[9,10] and silicon nitride [10].
Many authors [4,7,11 15] have concluded that
preliminary leaching of rice husks with a solution of
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +55-48-3319268; fax: +55-48-
2340059.
E-mail address: viviana@pg.materiais.ufsc.br (V.P. Della).
before thermal treatment with temperatures ranging
from 500 to 1400 jC for various time intervals
[16,17], proved to be effective in substantially remov-
ing most of the metallic impurities and producing ash-
silica completely white in colour with a high specific
surface area.
An increasing application of rice husk is as fuel in
heat generation for drying rice, due to its high
calorific power (approximately 16720 kJ/kg). In this
combustion, rice husk ash (RHA) is produced. The
burning of rice husk in air always leads to the
formation of silica ash, which varies from gray to
black depending on inorganic impurities and un-
burned carbon amounts [18].
In this paper, processing and characterization of
high specific surface area silica from RHA is pre-
sented. The relative amount of silica was increased by

0167-577X/02/$ - see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 7 - 5 7 7 X ( 0 2 ) 0 0 8 7 9 - 0
 V.P. Della et al. / Materials Letters 57 (2002) 818821 819

Table 1 model PW 2400, The Netherlands). Mineralogical

Chemical composition of RHA before and after burning out at 700 analysis was performed by X-ray diffractometry
jC for 6 h
(XRD, Philips, model Xpert, The Netherlands) with
Components expressed RHA RHA after
CuKa radiation. The of particles size distribution was
as oxides as received burning out
determined by laser diffraction (Cilas, model 1064L,
SiO2 72.1 94.95
USA). Specific surface area of RHA particles was
Al2O3 0.30 0.39
Fe2O3 0.15 0.26 determined by the nitrogen adsorption according to
CaO 0.43 0.54 B.E.T. (Micrometrics, model ASAP 2000, USA). The
Na2O 0.50 0.25 carbon analysis was performed according to ASTM
K2O 0.72 0.94 5373 [19] by IR spectroscopy (Leco, model CHN
MnO 0.15 0.16
600, USA).
TiO2 0.05 0.02
MgO 0.70 0.90
P2O5 0.06 0.74
Loss on fire 24.3 0.85
3. Results and discussions
heat treatment and the specific surface area was
The RHA sample after burning out at 700 jC for 6
improved by milling.
h presented the highest amount of silica (Table 1)
compared to the other samples. This sample was
chosen to be submitted to grinding. The relative
2. Experimental procedure
contents of other elements increased in general with
increase in temperature and time [14]. Small diver-
The raw material used for the experiments was an
gences of this rule are probably caused by inherent
RHA obtained from a local Industry (Fumacense,
Morro da Fumaca, SC, Brazil) after burning rice husk
during the process of rice manufacture.
The first step for producing a high specific surface
area silica or active silica (AS) from RHA consists of
a thermal treatment at several temperatures. The aim
of this step is to increase the relative amount of
silicon oxide by reduction of carbonaceous materials
present in the samples, as well as to burn out other
undesirable components detected by chemical analy-
sis. The ash samples were submitted to heat treatment
in ceramic crucibles of 24.5 cm diameter (Oxford,
Sao Bento do Sul, SC). Heating cycles were carried
out in air in an electric oven (Shaly, model Lab 18-
1300CR) with a heating rate of 10 jC/min. Each
sample was held at a maximum temperature (400,
500, 600 or 700 jC) for 1, 3 or 6 h. The samples were
cooled down inside the oven.
The grinding step to decrease mean particles size
and increase specific surface area was carried out in a
high impact mill (Gabrielli, model Mill2) with a
porcelain jar and microspheres of high alumina as
grinding medium. Wet milling cycles of 10, 40 and 80
min were performed.
Quantitative chemical analyses of RHA were Fig. 1. XRD of RHA: (a) as received; (b) after burning out at 700
accomplished by X-ray fluorescence (XRF, Philips, jC for 6 h.
820 V.P. Della et al. / Materials Letters 57 (2002) 818821

noticed, indicating an incipient crystallization process

leading to a disordered cristobalite [21].
Patel [14] reported that the temperature of carbon-
ization is preferably below 700 jC to avoid any trans-
formation of amorphous to crystalline form. It has been
found that reheating the ash to remove carbon residues
takes a relatively long period of time and higher
temperatures, with the consequent effect that silica is
converted to crystalline forms [22]. This behavior was
not evidenced along the burning cycles here applied.
The structure of silica present in the ash treated at 700
jC for 6 h remained essentially amorphous (Fig. 1b).
It has been found that reheating the ash to remove
carbon residues takes a relatively long period of time
and higher temperatures, with the consequent effect
that silica is converted to crystalline forms [22]. This
behavior was not evidenced along the burning cycles
here applied.

Fig. 2. Particle size distribution of RHA: (a) as received; (b) after

wet grinding for 80 min in a jar mill.

uncertainty of measurements. The percentage of loss

on fire decreased after heat treatment. The most
common trace elements in RHA are sodium, potas-
sium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese
and zinc [20]. Differences in composition are due to
geographical factors, year of harvest, sample prepara-
tion and analysis methods.
Burning out temperature and time are important
factors to define whether silica remains amorphous, as
in RHA, or become crystalline. In spite of higher
temperatures and times of heat-treating applied in this
study, the structure of silica present in the ash remained
essentially amorphous (Fig. 1a). For the samples RHA
400 jC for 6 h, 500 jC for 1 h, 500 jC for 3 h and 500 Fig. 3. Macroscopies of RHA: (a) as received; (b) after burning out
jC for 6 h, a diffused peak at about h = 22j was at 700 jC for 6 h, and wet grinding for 80 min in a jar mill.
 V.P. Della et al. / Materials Letters 57 (2002) 818821 821

The particle mean size of RHA after burning out at It was possible to obtain high specific area silica
700 jC for 6 h was around 33 Am (Fig. 2a), being all from the rice husk ash after heat-treating and
particles lower than 112 Am. After milling for 80 min, milling processing by applying this simple tech-
the mean size was decreased to 0.68 Am, being 100% nique, and it is possible to transform industrial
of particles lower than 6 Am (Fig. 2b). residue in useful raw materials, avoiding damage to
As raw material, RHA presented a specific surface the environment.
area around 177 m2/g. After burning out at 700 jC for
6 h, it was changed to 54 m2/g. This decrease in
specific area is proportional to heating temperature
and time, which causes an agglomeration effect, Acknowledgements
diminishing porosity. After wet grinding for 80 min,
the particles specific area increased to 81 m2/g. The financial support of the Brazilian Agency
The carbon content was estimated as the percent loss CAPES is acknowledged.
on fire [7]. Color changes are associated with the
completeness of combustion process as well as with
structural transformation of the silica in the ash. Hous- References
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